- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
VBAC
How did you decide - VBAC vs RCS?
So I've been a long time lurker, it took my DH and I over a year to conceive baby #2 - very excited to meet this new bundle. My question to you other high risk moms out there if this is your 2nd plus baby - and you had a C-section the first time how did you decide what kind of birth you wanted for baby 2. I had severe pre-e with my DD and she was born at 31 wks. I am now 27 weeks pg, had my first steriod shot today - second tomorrow just to be safe. No sign of pre-e so far. My family/DH think that I should have a C-section regardless - i'm curious to look at my other options especially as we get closer to meeting this new addition to our family - any thoughts or suggestions.
On a side note I go to a local family practice Dr and our local hosptial will not do a VBAC so I'd have to go about an hour away to be able to try - which is the hospital I had my daughter at anyway
This discussion has been closed.
Re: How did you decide - VBAC vs RCS?
I'm not pregnant yet but am planning to vbac when the time comes.
For me two things put me solidly in the vbac camp.
1) the reality that I'm 3 times more likely to die in a RCS than a VBAC. My DD and DH need me alive and well so that's a huge part of it. And a big part of why DH started to back me on it.
2) being able to jump back into taking care of DD and the new baby. I'm a SAHM and while I'll have help the first 2 weeks or so after that I'm going to be back at "work" as the primary caregiver. I can't imagine doing that after a c/s, it was all I could do to take care of a newborn after my c/s. I don't want to try to keep up with a very active toddler after major surgery if I can avoid it.
But every VBAC mom has her own reasons for choosing to VBAC. Remember you're the one who will have to deal with the after effects and risks of a RCS so you need to do what you are comfortable with.
Your family and DH are probably
1) most likely uninformed about VBAC vs. RCS
2) thinking how "easy" a c/s is you show up on x day and have a baby a few hours later, no labor no pushing.
I spent a lot of time educating my family about VBAC. It was a long road to convince them that I wasn't crazy and that this wasn't a ridiculous thing to try to do.
Even with my first birth, my Mom started saying maybe it would be easier if I just had a c-section - since DD was supposed to be so big. It shocked me, because she's a huge natural birth supporter. I think they just see it as the easy way out and as a "painless" option.
Personally, it wasn't even a decision for me. From the moment I had my c-section, I knew I wanted to try for a VBAC with #2.
- I want to experience birth the way it was intended.
- I have faith in our body's ability to birth.
- I don't want to go through major surgery, unless it's truly necessary
- I want a faster recovery
- I want to be able to care for both kids as quickly as possible.
- I want to be an active participant in the birth process.
For me, I decided before I even had my c-section that I would have a VBAC. And having the c-section confirmed my decision.
I did not enjoy my c-section, despite it being quick, and a relatively painless recovery. I never again want to experience the feeling I had with the spinal. Not to mention, I always have this fear in the back of my mind about the anesthesia not taking, as I knew two women that this happened to, and one turned into a traumatic disaster. Also, I hated how loopy/groggy I was due to being hopped up on morphine after the fact. I barely remember the first several hours after having DD, I could barely keep my eyes open while trying to learn to nurse her. I felt like I couldn't hold her without the possibility of dropping her. It sucked.
Second, a RCS is not the safest option for me at this point. There is no medical reason that I should have a RCS, and all the risks say that VBAC is the best choice. Also, I value being able to feel in control of my birth. With a c-section, I felt very out of control of what happened during and immediately after (partially I'm sure because I wasn't 100% lucid due to the drugs). I don't want to have to go through that again. I want to be able to make my own decisions regarding my labor, birth, and postpartum experience, and I felt like I didn't get that opportunity last time.
This! There's never been a doubt in my mind about it!
This, plus the after effects I had from the c-section. I went through a type of depression where I felt I wasn't a woman bc I couldn't do it, and I felt like something had been taken away from me. I now know I did what was best as mine was an emergency, but non the less if still hit me hard and I don't want to fight with those feelings again.
I want to try for a VBAC, but I do understand there are risk and I am prepared to again do what I need to do for both the safety of baby and me.
My first was born due to pProm at 30 weeks. It was a really tramatic experience for me. They rushed me into the ER knocked me out under general, and didn't let DH and I say goodbye(baby was already coming out feet first)
When I woke up I was no longer pregnant, my husband was with the baby, and I was told they were flying him to a hospital with a NICU 1 1/2 hours away.
I got to see him through a plastic box on his way to the helicopter for about 3 minutes. I didn't see him again for 2 days.
I was completely scarred and knew that if we had another one being able to have a VBAC would help those wounds heal and even if I ended up with another c-section at least I would have tried. I was the most adamant that I really needed to touch and hold the baby no matter how I have birth.
I had a GREAT VBAC with #2. It was textbook and med free. I really felt like it healed some of the hurt and feelings left over from #1.
I am looking forward to another successful VBAC with #3! If something happens and I end up with a c-section at least I know that I will have given it everything I've got.
** Warning: This is a b*tch-session of sorts**
I had my daughter 2 wks ago, by RCS - BUT...this was not my choice, it was kinda hers, b/c she went breech in the last couple of weeks before birth. Prior to that, I had firmly been planning a VBAC, for all of the reasons I have unfortunately experienced via the second surgery. Everyone is different, I know this -but - here are the things I either went through that past 2 wks or am going through RIGHT NOW, that I SOOO wanted to avoid:
- I had to have my spinal repeated just before surgery b/c the meds did not spread the way they should have - so my temporary chest-down paralysis was extreme and lasted longer.
- I was very drugged up and out of it during the birth - no real options there. I puked, too - try that with NO stomach muscles to speak of during surgery.
- Morphine itch following surgery
- Spinal headache - necessitated a return trip to the hospital for a blood patch 2 days after getting home. NOT FUN.
- My new scar is 2 inches LONGER than my former, and is half keloid-ish. Probably won't stay so bad, but - it depresses me seeing it every day, and feeling the referral pain from nerve endings "waking back up".
- Was on Oxy-codone for 2 wks, and hated the feeling
- Had a systemic allergic reaction to Naproxin, broke out in hives, and had to take Claritin to clear up.
- Hard to nurse while babying the painful spots during recovery. Still.
- Cannot take good care of my 2.5 yr old, and he is having a hard time with this. Me too!
- Can't lift anything heavier than my newborn, or bend easily until 6 wks.
- Can't "exercise" for another 4 wks - and feel like half my mat. lv is getting burnt up and wasted while I recover.
- I took no pills for 10 mos of pregnancy, and now have to stay on a stream of tylenol or advil for the foreseeable future until the pain is manageable.
- My incisions hurt and burn- both inside and out. It sucks.
Everyone says how "easy" a RCS is, and how much of a breeze it was to recover compared with their first. Not so for me. My first was OK - but both have been real hard to come back from. I know, it's "only" been 2 weeks - but, I am jealous of women who feel they get to return to their former selves earlier than 6 wks. I hated going through major surgery again. Am I happy my baby is healthy and here? Of course! But...I am also bitter over how we had to bring her into the world. I wanted to experience the other side - and I wanted a faster recovery from birth - NOT major abdominal surgery, AGAIN. I won't likely "appreciate" the benefits of a RCS (like no tearing and no stretching of my privates), until I am WELL past the healing process from this.
So...again, everyone is different - but this RCS recipient is still a VBAC proponent. I had planned mine at my hospital, btw - not at home. I had a willing OB and team, and a great, supportive hospital. That influenced my thought process greatly in making my decision. If I were high risk, I might have had less trepidation in making my initial decision. Good luck with yours!!
I had a successful VBAC with DD#2 ... even though DD#1 didn't come out after hours of pushing, and even though DD#2's head was huge!
Even though my doc told me I was unlikely to be successful, it was an easy decision to try to avoid a C, for all of the reasons posted here. For me it was 2 things:
1. Despite what some docs say, VBAC is safer than RCS for mom for sure, and about the same risk for baby. As long as you are not induced, the risk of rupture is really low, 1 in 250, and most of those aren't serious. At one point I calcuated the risk to the baby from a study I read and it was something like 1 in 2,000.
2. The recovery from a C majorly sucks. Having had both a C and a VBAC, there was NO comparison. After the VBAC I was basically normal. After the C I felt like an invalid for weeks.
It galls me that OBs try to tell women that RCS are safer. On the show "Deliver Me" an OB says to a woman considering VBAC, "If you want no risk, have the C-section." This is completely inconsistent with the scientific evidence.
** Rant done **
It's not even a decision for me. I wouldn't even think about a RCS. If I'm healthy and baby is healthy there would be no choice to make. I would gladly drive an hour away to not have surgery again. I can appreciate your family's opinions but they wouldn't be the ones lying in the OR so...